Para que serve a Educação? 2
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In America, it becomes the school's business to do something about these things. Of course, we have ample evidence that the schools do not do them very well, and there are those who believe that by assigning the schools the task of solving intractable social problems, we turn them into well-funded garbage dumps. This is a rather gross way to state the objection, frequently made by people of ill will. But there is, nonetheless, a reasoned complaint against the schools' trying to do what other social institutions are supposed to do but don't. The principal argument is that teachers are not competent to serve as priests, psychologists, therapists, political reformers, social workers, sex advisers, or parents. That some teachers might wish to do so is understandable, since in this way they may elevate their prestige. That some would feel it necessary to do so is also understandable, since many social institutions, including the family and church, have deteriorated in their influence. But unprepared teachers are not an improvement on ineffective social institutions; the plain fact is that there is nothing in the background or education of teachers that qualifies them to do what other institutions are supposed to do. It should be clear, by the way, that in this argument the phrase "unprepared teachers" does not mean that teachers cannot do their work. It means they cannot do everyone's work.
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(op. cit., pp. 143-144)
Apesar de este trecho não se referir ao ES, é possível usá~lo para reflectir sobre a missão das IES. Uma das questões que me tem preocupado mais em tempos recentes é um possível "desentendimento" entre docentes e discentes. Os primeiros têm, muitas vezes, uma ideia global muito negativa dos estudantes e das suas capacidades de trabalho e decisão. Os segundos ressentem-se, muitas vezes, por serem tratados como menores de idade, nomeadamente em termos da limitação de certas escolhas sobre o percurso académico e sobre gestão do tempo. Penso que não é necessária qualquer formação especial para perceber as virtudes de um diálogo franco entre as duas partes. Partir de posições extremadas não é, de todo, aconselhável.
Bolonha tem um potencial de aprendizagem de gestão de conflitos (uma competência!) interessante neste ponto específico.
Neil Postman (1996). The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School. Vintage Books, Nova Yorque (209 pp.)